Sticks are too small to waste her time with Only branches will do I break a nice big one down to 5 feet we walk down to the stream We could go on and on forever casting and fetching I throw it out beyond the bend she stops as she approaches it her face all perplexity and looks into the water just under her With a strange backward digging effort she thrashes dives her head into the water and exhumes a waterlogged 12–foot branch With glee, she trots back with it Sometimes, she’ll voraciously chew up an over–sized log dredged from the depths biting away in continuous joy and concentrated angst with the occasional bit of wood wedged in her teeth Sometimes, she’ll disintegrate the whole thing to shreds This time, we cast and fetch over and over a rainbow in each splash Too big for us to carry away in comfort
Category: Poems
Poem
Jupiter and Io
Not everyone needs to be overwhelmed by thunder and lightening Something tender and familiar strong but approachable We wink at one another and smile at how crafty such a powerful being in love is Considerate, rather
Distance to Water
Luria Park, I knew since my youth On a field trip there, I found an ant creature Upon magnifying the water in a microscope It was there I learned that Lexi loved the water and was afraid to swim And walking back from there with her We bumped into and a cousin of Lexi’s, Nico and his kind owner Jim who suggested the path to the nearby lake where we’d later teach her to swim Then there are the two parks nearby which Evi and Anyu once graced which I go to for a change of pace Lexie even discovered the dog park by her own intuitive pulling one day And my brother suggested the nearby nature center which offered its own mystical stream journey under the beltway And that bike ride down Camelot which revealed the trail with a new, wide stream that I have yet to take her to And for all this wonder, she just wants to be fetching in the water
Little Time for a Little Love
We cross the bridge and the water there is perfect, wide and deep with a soft beach for entry Cast, cast, cast Swim, swim, swim Fetch, fetch, fetch While Lexie furtively fetches I lean upon the rusting railing in repose After a fetch, I calmly gaze upon a pair of yellow–winged butterflies Hip, hop, hip, hop, along the beach One flutters a foot; the other follows Then, stillness; their wings parallel, vertical The moment holds its breath while still calmly breathing easy, like the gentle breeze that crowns us Wings open Her wings open in one majestic bloom neither slow nor fast not confident or timid but all those things and none such she unfolds her world to him He gazes upon her pattern while another epoch quietly breathes withheld breath He pounces upon her Her wings fly up, a Venus encircling him My heart exalts that such ravishing peace could exist in the world My brain, dizzy, torn asunder How long, I wonder, could this incredible little bliss be permitted to exist I pause, grateful for each second as Lexie pleads for another fetch Lest she bark, I contrive to throw the branch over the other side But, upon my first movement, she careens down the sand into the water He disappears She hops from one rock to the other and back to their love-patch in despair, love–lost. In a fortunate bizarre twist, Lexi goes under the bridge and up the other side Lady butterfly hops I wait, another epoch Just a half epoch He comes from nowhere and, instantly, they rejoin in their double–V Down the path we go, to leave them to the delight of the world I have to laugh at myself for thinking 30 minutes enough for eternity for, when we double–back later and I've promised Lexie a proper romp in the perfect water, I realize that she’s disturbed them again